Atlassian’s State of Product 2026 reveals a gap between faster work and better outcomes. Flying blind (Still).
The promise of AI is compelling: spend less time on routine work and more on strategy, experimentation and understanding customers. This is what our own research showed.
Yet Atlassian’s State of Product 2026 suggests that promise remains unfinished. 49% of product teams lack time for strategic planning and roadmap development! The same proportion lack time for data analysis and tracking metrics.
As a result of this lack of strategic ‘lookahead’, 84% are concerned their current products won’t succeed in the market.
Where is this time saved and why is it not converting?
Some PMs report more than two hours a day saved, although half of respondents save 10–60 minutes. Product documentation leads regular AI usage: around 60% use it weekly or daily for PRDs and user stories.
There’s a slight irony here in an Atlassian report showing AI’s strongest foothold in specifications and user stories: the work we associate with filling the … Jira backlog. But let’s not dwell on that too much, although I have definitely seen a lot of time being saved in this area though.
The report’s subtitle, “So far, AI doesn’t help with complex work”, captures the frustration.
Teams want the next step
This echoes our research into what teams actually want AI to do, analysing 399 problem statements across 13 sectors.
Higher-value work and time savings each accounted for 16% of desired outcomes; creative and strategic focus accounted for another 7%.
People want to work on the higher value aspects of the role which includes creative and strategic work.
Convert the saved time into Purpose
Atlassian recommends collaboratively defining Vision, Mission, Goals and Strategies. There’s a clear family resemblance to Liftoff’s vision, mission and mission tests: agree the future you want, the team’s contribution and how you’ll know it’s working.
Teams need to convert the time saved into precisely what Liftoff recommends: Vision, Mission and Mission test. This is what is needed to resolve the fact that almost 90% of teams worrying that their product basically has ‘no legs’.
My takeaway: leaders need to protect the time AI saved and convert it into purpose. Note that AI Native teams are also reporting their remit from idea to GTM which makes this move all the more necessary.